Charlotte Joko Beck

In this whole back-and-forth process, there’s nothing but separation. How do we resolve it? We resolve it by experiencing that which we don’t want to experience. We need to experience nonverbally the uncomfortableness, the anger, the fear that is sitting beneath this vacillation between the two poles. That’s true zazen, true prayer, true religious practice. Eventually the anger (as physical experience) will begin to shift. If we’re really upset, the shifting may take weeks or months. But if we surrender to the experiencing, if we “embrace the tiger,” it will always shift—because when we are the experience itself, there is no subject and no object. And when there’s no subject or object, the barrier of emotion-thought drops and for the first time we can clearly see. When we can see, we know what to do. And what we do will be loving and compassionate. The religious life can be lived.(Everyday Zen)